Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Mayor Kathy Taylor was quoted to say that she, "is sad that Tulsans do not appear ready to invest in education." But wait, we already give over $31 million per year to TCC from existing property taxes (OKC gives about $3 million a year to its community college). And we gave TCC another $8 million in Vision 2025 sales taxes. Not to mention what goes to OSU-Tulsa, NSU-Broken Arrow, OU-Tulsa, Langston-Tulsa, Tulsa Technology and all the public school districts in the county.

One national metric for performance does exist, the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The NAEP is a series of tests administered under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics. Known as the Nation’s Report Card, the NAEP tests measure proficiency in reading and math among 4th and 8th graders nationwide as well as in every state. The NAEP sets its proficiency standard through a well-established, if complex, technical process.

And Oklahoma is only one of three states to be given an F.

Three states—Georgia, Oklahoma, and Tennessee—expected so little of students that they received the grade of F. The state of Georgia, for instance, declared 88 percent of 8th graders proficient in reading, even though just 26 percent scored at or above the proficiency level on the NAEP.

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Next Tuesday the voters of Tulsa County will have the opportunity to vote up or down on a proposed increase (both permanent and temporary) in millage for Tulsa Community College. This is to fund expansion of buildings and operations and maintenance.

Did you know that space is available, especially at the Northeast Campus?

Did you know that the people of Tulsa County fund our community college at a rate of 10 times more than the people of Oklahoma County are asked to fund their community college?

Did you know that if we vote in this tax increase, we will enable our state legislature to appropriate even less to TCC than before? (Tulsa will be short-changed by the state again!)

Did you know that if we vote in this tax increase, your property taxes will be permanently increased?

Did you know that TCC has been operating with a surplus for years?

Did you know that the voters gave TCC an additional $8 million with Vision 2025?

I like TCC. But they must learn to tighten their belts like we all must do.

The Tulsa Chigger will vote no on this permanent tax increase. The wrong tax at the wrong time!

The 2 party system will ultimately elect a nominee for the election this fall, but almost two years into the election process there are no favorites.

With the Democrats effectively split and Obama's delegate count only a shade above Billary's, even the Republicans are having trouble. It seems that in North Carolina and in Indiana John McCain the apparent nominee had 26% and 22% respectively, Republicans voting against him!

Have both parties reached the Peter Principle? Have they elevated these people to their level of incompetence? I think so!

Is this the best this nation can do?

Has our nation, so defined to suffer under a strong Federal government since the outcome of the War between the States, reached its Peter Principle, and is now at its level of incompetence?

This election is ripe for a darkhorse candidate to come racing from the wings. Katy bar the door!

Thursday, May 01, 2008

Today is Braum's 40th anniversary in Oklahoma. I have loved their dairy products since I was in high school way back in the '70's. While playing football for Nathan Hale, a friend and I would go to Braum's and eat banana splits hoping to gain some playing weight. But high metabolisms and all that extra work just burned off the extra calories.

One of the first girls I dated worked at Braum's just east of Sheridan on 31st Street.